


An Old Skill

by LtTanyaBoone



Category: NCIS
Genre: Community: comment_fic, Father/Daughter Relationship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-10
Updated: 2012-12-10
Packaged: 2017-11-20 20:02:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 987
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/589127
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LtTanyaBoone/pseuds/LtTanyaBoone
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>written for comment_fic, prompt was "NCIS, Gibbs, caring about his new 'daughters' means bringing back skills he hasn't needed since he lost Kelly"</p>
            </blockquote>





	An Old Skill

**Disclaimers:** NCIS, the rights to the show and its characters do not belong to me. No money was made by this.  
 **Spoilers:** everything  
 **Pairing:** Leroy Jethro Gibbs/Ziva David father/daughter

written for [a prompt](http://comment-fic.livejournal.com/286538.html?thread=54014282#t54014282) at the [comment_fic meme](http://comment-fic.livejournal.com)

* * *

Gibbs knocked on the bathroom door, raising his eyebrows when he merely got a frustrated shriek as answer. He was about to call Ziva’s name when the door flung open and the Israeli glared at him. Her expression would have made any other man run away in fear. But he was Leroy Jethro Gibbs, so he just tilted his head at her and Ziva deflated a little, letting out a slow breath.

“What?” she asked him.

“We’re going to be late.” Gibbs informed her, causing the other woman to lift her arm to check her watch, but only finding white cast staring back at her. Ziva let out a groan, tilting her head back and staring at the ceiling briefly.

“Fine, then let’s go.” she said, pushing past him and taking the stairs down to get her coat. Gibbs shook his head in amusement and followed her, waiting for her to realize that she was still holding her hairbrush in the other hand. He didn’t have to wait long, Ziva gave a soft curse and threw the item on the couch before she held out her coat to him. She had tried putting it on herself yesterday, which had only resulted in a hiss of pain. Their last suspect had done quite a number on her and DiNozzo, broken her left wrist and bruised her right shoulder pretty badly. Enough that she was almost helpless on her own. Not that Ziva liked admitting that, of course. She had fought tooth and nail when the doctor had declared she should have someone take care of her for the next couple of days. Ducky had tried, but Ziva had found his concern smothering. And Abby… well, that arrangement had lasted about two hours. Tim had been out of the question, as Gibbs had found, because the nature of Ziva’s injuries meant that she didn’t just need someone to cut her food for her, but also someone who could help her dress and undress, and DiNozzo was barely able to take care of himself with a broken leg, so helping her was just impossible.

“Want me to fix that?” Gibbs offered when he held out her coat, lowering it so Ziva could slip her right arm comfortably into it.

“Huh?” she muttered, furrowing her browswhen she turned around to him.

“Your hair.” her team leader elaborated. Ziva sighed, making the motion of running her hand through it, but Gibbs quickly caught her hand before she could hit herself with the cast like she had the day before.

“You would?” Ziva asked him, eyeing him suspiciously. Gibbs nodded and the Israeli sighed, holding out a scrunchie to him. “I thought that I could braid it, so it wouldn’t need to be fixed throughout the day, but I’ll just have to go to you, then.” she said, getting the brush and raising an eyebrow when Gibbs followed her, pointing at the couch for her to sit. “Thank God I can manage with my pants.” the Israeli muttered, drawing a chuckle from her boss.

Gibbs sat down next to her, looking down at the hairbrush and swallowing thickly before he reached out and started to carefully run it through Ziva’s curls. The last time he had brushed someone else’s hair had been with Kelly. She had wanted him to put it up on pigtails, the day before he’d left for Desert Storm. This was vastly different, through. Kelly’s hair had been shorter, finer. He hadn’t had any trouble getting the brush through half of it, but Ziva’s hair was so much thicker and he was almost afraid of accidentally pulling at it.

“The last time someone else brushed my hair, I was fourteen.” Ziva suddenly said, turning her head a little.

“Really?” Gibbs asked her, lifting an eyebrow in surprise and seeing her nod.

“Tali was… she had this phase where she wanted to fix people’s hair. She was always running around with a comb or a brush and begging people to let her style their hair. She even got our father to let her do his once, just to shut her up. She must have been ten.” Ziva trailed off, drawing a slow breath.

Gibbs tilted his head at his work, hesitating briefly before he started carefully dividing Ziva’s dark hair into three parts. It was slow going at first, but once he remembered how braiding worked, his fingers started moving faster, and before he knew it, he was putting the scrunchie into place and threw the braid over Ziva’s shoulder. The woman startled, touching her hair before she turned around in surprise. She must have gotten lost in thoughts and hadn’t noticed what he’d been doing.

“You know how to braid?” she asked him, tilting her head. Gibbs swallowed before he nodded.

“Shannon showed me.” he told her. “Kelly kept pulling out her braids when she was younger and- well, it was easier showing me how to do them properly than fixing the mess I created when I tried.” he shrugged, surprised to hear Ziva give a soft laugh.

“I think that’s a lesson most have to learn.” she said, getting up from the couch.

“Yours, too?” Gibbs asked her in surprise, unable to picture Eli David sitting down and braiding his child’s hair. Ziva froze in her steps and he saw her shoulders tense up before she turned around. She shook her head wordlessly.

“No, he didn’t.” she whispered, swallowing thickly before she forced a smile. “We should probably leave.” she said, motioning to the door. Gibbs nodded in agreement, getting up and following her out of the house, thankful that there would be no discussion about who was driving.

_fin._


End file.
